CRI听力：Billionaire Turned Environmentalist

Fifty-one-year-old Xing Yiqian was once a billionaire, but now he is penniless. In 14 years, he used his entire fortune to create a paradise for birds and primeval forests in his hometown. The Mingrenshan Nature Reserve that he has worked so hard to build is the first privately-funded and-run nature preserve in China. So what's the story behind this billionaire-turned-environmentalist and the green kingdom he has created? Our reporter Dan Dan finds out more.

Reporter: Xing Yiqian used to lead an extravagant life, staying in seaside villas and five-star hotels, traveling in luxury limousines and spending money like it's burning a hole in the pocket.

Now he lives a frugal life in a log cabin by the Egret Lake in the Mingrenshan nature reserve, which has cost every penny of his to build over the past 14 years.
The nature reserve is located in Wenchang city of southern China's Hainan province. Covering an area of 2,000 hectares, it's a heaven for over 1,000 varieties of birds and tropical vegetation.

Despite his hard life today, Xing Yiqian is gratified that he has finally realized his dream of restoring his hometown to its past beauty and vitality.

"When I was young I told myself that if I had enough money I would try my best to make my hometown more beautiful. At that time I didn't expect that such a wish would one day lead me onto the path of environmental protection. I love my hometown so much. It was quite poor, but it was once a very beautiful place covered with dense virgin forests and teemed with waterfowls like egrets, cranes and swans. If the forests and birds are gone for ever, I feel my root and my soul will be lost as well."

Xing Yiqian was born in Mingrenshan village by the beautiful Egret Lake. At age 23 he left home for the big cities to seek his fortune. After years of struggling, he managed to accumulate a fortune worth 200 million yuan, or about 24 million US dollars, through doing property business in Hainan province.
With the wealth in his pocket, Xing Yiqian returned to Mingrenshan village to realize his wish of doing something beneficial for his hometown. But he was shocked at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

The local people still lived a poor life, but the lush primeval forests surrounding the Egret Lake had fallen victim to the chainsaws, as the villagers fell and sold them as timber. The flocks of birds that once played happily in the lake area had all flown away, leaving the peaceful lake lying lonely and pathetically under the blue skies. Xing Yiqian was so grieved by the desolate view.

"At that time, the local people had little awareness of environmental protection. They shot birds for dinner and cut down trees for money. The trees had been growing here for centuries, but it took only several minutes to destroy them. My heart ached and cried for the loss of a paradise that could only live in my memory."

Fortunately, there were still many old trees around the village that survived the chainsaws for the time being. To save them, Xing Yiqian visited the local households one by one. He persuaded them not to cut the trees and offered to compensate them with his own money for keeping the trees alive.

Meanwhile, Xing Yiqian also poured a lot of money into benefiting the local people. He bought gas stoves for each family so that they wouldn't need to chop down trees to use as firewood. He helped the villagers to build roads, houses, schools, as well as water towers and pipes so they could have running water. He also donated clothes, food and money to people with financial difficulties.

"What I was doing was much more than saving the trees. Environment became an empty word for ordinary farmers in their earnest quest for money. So I had to try my best to spread knowledge about ecological protection among the locals and make them understand the significance of living in harmony with nature. That was more important, but was also much harder. "

When Xing Yiqian found his persuasion was useless to people who insisted on felling trees, he hit upon the idea of transplanting the unwanted trees to the Egret lake area so that a new natural habitat could be reestablished for the birds.

It was by no means an easy task. Xing Yiqian spent a huge amount of money buying old trees from villagers and then renting excavators, trucks and workers to transplant them.

His hard endeavor was well rewarded with a rapidly regenerating forest, which then attracted an increasing number of birds back to the lakeside. As Xing Yiqian successfully rebuilt a lush forest around the lake area, the Egret Lake once again became a paradise for tens of thousands of birds.

Xing Yiqian was glad with the return of his childhood friends, and so were his fellow villagers. Touched by his loving heart and unyielding spirit, the local people have gradually changed their attitude towards environmental protection.

"The local people have gradually turned themselves into protectors of nature instead of saboteurs. They no longer shot birds or fell trees. Some of them also helped me to patrol the lake area and protect the birds and plants."

To better protect the trees and birds, Xing Yiqian decided to set up a nature reserve with his own money. In 1997, his application was approved by the municipal government. The Mingrenshan nature reserve became the first of its kind in China to be wholly invested and managed by a private person.

Unfortunately, as Xing Yiqian focused all his time and energy on his environmental campaign, he totally neglected his property business. In the mid and late 1990s, the overheated real estate market in Hainan province began to shrink sharply. UNPRepared, Xing Yiqian's business went downhill quickly and finally collapsed.

The bad news came as a heavy blow to Xing Yiqian, but he was too busy building his green kingdom to care about his business. Year by year, the forests in the nature reserve became more and more luxuriant and are providing home for more and more birds. But Xing Yiqian has run out of savings and sold all his assets to keep his nature reserve running.

Although left penniless, Xing Yiqian still remains committed to his environmental protection endeavor.

"I've never regretted my move in environmental protection. I've always held the firm belief that preservation and development should go hand-in-hand. It does no harm to China for the loss of a billionaire, but it's sure a good thing for the country to have one more nature reserve."

As Xing Yiqian struggled to maintain his nature reserve, his extraordinary story and great dedication to environmental protection began to gain him attention and support from the Hainan provincial government.

Starting in 2005, Hainan province has earmarked an investment of two million US dollars to the nature reserve, aiming to develop it into a provincial level ecological forest park.

Xing Yiqian is so happy that his nature reserve is in the care of a wider society. With strong government support, he is sure the paradise he has built for birds and tropical plants in his hometown will be put under better protection in the future. This is also the everlasting wish of the venerable environmentalist.